Weymouth Veterans Hub gets £50k makeover
Generous donations are opening up all sorts of opportunities for the service.
Last updated 4th Feb 2022
The new year has started well for Weymouth's Veterans Hub, after a makeover made possible by £50,000 worth of grants.
A new shop, accessible shower and laundry facilities, and a therapy room are all among new additions to the service.
And now, bosses are looking to the future - eager to use the breathing room granted them by the funding to explore how else they can help Dorset's veterans.
Andy Price is the Director. He said:
"It's allowed us to breathe a sigh of relief, there's not so much pressure on me now for the next 12 months to worry about things such as overheads.
"It also allows me to do things like reach out to the community and say 'if you've got a service that you think would benefit veterans, I've got a space you can use for free or for minimal cost for the next 12 months.
"We've already seen a massive increase in footfall of people coming through the door from the veteran's community who weirdly, we've been here three years and we've got people swinging by now who weren't aware we're here."
The Veterans Hub offers a whole range of services to ex-servicemen and women and their families. It's been built from the ground up, mostly by those veterans, with the most recent additions of an outbuilding for dog socialising workshops.
It also features a café, small allotment and gym.
Andy says the veterans who helped make it what it is are thinking of the generations to come:
"Quite a few of the lads here, one of their favourite sayings is 'this isn't for us now, this is for future generations of veterans, veterans families.'
"What we're trying to create now is a template for how we think it should work.
"This is a really unique project, it would be hard to find an all in one project like this where you've got everything from counsellors, sports physiotherapists, housing advice, to the coffee shop, to the gardens, to the gym. It's supposed to be a complete wrap around service."